ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the relational dynamics of blackfella music performances in whitefella-dominated regional towns. Bush musicians who have performed in regional towns frequently bring up these experiences in ongoing music and social activities in their home communities. In this, they often emphasize their encounters with musicians or music workers in town venues who are not ‘bush mob’. It is a way for musicians who start out in desert communities to distinguish themselves as music makers who have advanced from just ‘mucking around’ in the hinterland blackfella performance circuit. However, in drawing on town gig experiences, it is whitefella quality of these experiences that boosts an image of being situated somewhat beyond and above the social embeddedness of hinterland blackfella music scene. At the same time, the men recognize that town spheres are part of the dominant mainstream, while their blackfella position in the bush is kind of backwater of both music industry and the larger Australian society.
